X. 1792. 41. Siege of Lisle. Sept. 14. CHAP. upon the two flanks in Alsace and in the Low Countries. The principal forces of both parties having been drawn from the Netherlands, to strengthen the armies of the Operations centre, the movements there were necessarily inconsiderin Flanders. able. The French camp at Maulde was broken up, and a retreat commenced to the intrenched position at Bruillé, a stronghold somewhat in the rear. But in executing this movement, the retreating force was, on 14th September, attacked and completely routed by the Austrians, with the loss of all their artillery, equipage, and ammunition. Encouraged by this easy success, the invaders, under the Archduke Albert, with a force of twenty-five thousand, undertook the siege of Lisle, one of the strongest towns in Europe, and which, in 1708, had made a glorious defence against the united armies of Eugene and Marlborough. The garrison, consisting of ten thousand men, and the commander, a man of courage and energy, were devoted to the cause of the Republic. In these circumstances, little success could be hoped for Sept. 29. from a regular siege; but the Austrians endeavoured to intimidate the governor by the terror of a bombardment, which was continued night and day for a whole week. This terrible tempest produced little impression upon the soldiers, who, secure within bomb-proof casemates, beheld it fall with indifference upon the defenceless inhabitants; but upon the people in the vicinity it produced such extreme consternation, that it was afterwards ascertained that, had Lisle been taken, almost all the other frontier towns would at once have capitulated, to avoid a similar fate. The Austrians, in fact, would have acquired, by the capture of this important city, a firm footing within the French frontier, attended by the most important effect upon the future issue of the campaign. But their operations were interrupted by the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick, and the approach of considerable forces from various quarters to raise the siege. inhabitants bore with heroic firmness the horrors of a The X. 1792. bombardment, which was continued with unprecedented CHAP. vigour on the part of the enemy, and consumed a considerable portion of the city; and during the siege General Lamartillière effected his entry with above ten thousand men, so that the besieged became equal to the besieging force. This circumstance, joined to the exhaustion of their ammunition, and the approach of a body detached by Dumourier to threaten their operations, induced the Austrians to abandon their enterprise; and on the 7th October the siege was raised, and the troops Oct. 7. withdrawn from the French territory. The terrors of the conflagration, and the glorious issue of the siege, were deservedly celebrated throughout all France, and contributed not a little to augment that energetic spirit which 170, 175, now animated the inhabitants even of the most distant 181. Ann. Reg. 1793, departments, and soon became so formidable to the 55, 56. neighbouring states.1 1 Jom. ii. 176. Th.iii. 42. on the Up of Mayence. Meanwhile General Biron, who commanded forty-five thousand men in Alsace, consumed the most important Operations period of the campaign in tardy preparations. But at per Rhine, length General Custine, who was at the head of a force and capture of seventeen thousand men, posted near Landau, undertook an offensive movement against Spires, where immense magazines had been collected. By a rapid advance he surrounded a corps of three thousand men, who were stationed near the city, and compelled them to surrender-an event which led to the immediate capture of Spires, Worms, and Frankenthal. This important success, which took place at the very time that the main body of the Allies was engaged in the Argonne forest, Sept. 30. might have had the most important effect upon the future fate of the campaign, had Custine immediately obeyed the orders of the Convention, and, relinquishing his invasion of the Palatinate, turned with his victorious forces on the rear and communications of the Duke of Brunswick's army. But that general had other projects in view, which ultimately turned out not a little service X. 1792. Oct. 21. CHAP. able to the Republic. Disobeying the orders of government, he remained fourteen days in apparent inactivity in the Palatinate, but in reality carrying on a secret correspondence with the garrison and Jacobin Club in Mayence. In consequence, on the 18th October he moved at the head of twenty-two thousand men towards that city, which was invested on the 19th; and on the 21st, before a single battery had been raised, that important fortress, the key to the western provinces of the Empire, surrendered by capitulation, the garrison of four thousand men being allowed to retire, on the condition of not serving against the French for twelve months. Thus did the Allies lose the only fortified post which they Th. iii, 182. possessed on the Rhine-a signal proof of the rashness 1793,70,71. and presumption with which they had penetrated into 61. the heart of France, without securing in an adequate manner their base of operations or means of retreat.1 1 Jom. ii. 148, 151, 157, 158. Hard. ii. 41. 43. of Brunswick re crosses the Rhine. Oct. 25. Urged on by the desire to levy contributions, which The Duke the distressed state of his army in fact rendered a matter of necessity, Custine made a useless incursion to Frankfort, which was of no real service to the campaign; while the Duke of Brunswick, terrified at the loss of Mayence, advanced by forced marches from the neighbourhood of Luxembourg to Coblentz, where his forces defiled over the Rhine by a flying bridge for twelve successive days. Immediate dissolution now threatened the noble army which had so lately carried terror into the heart of France, and so nearly crushed the whole forces of the Revolution. The gallant corps of the emigrant noblesse was speedily disbanded from want of any resources to keep it together; the Austrians, under Clairfait, were recalled to the defence of the Low Countries; and the Prussians put into cantonments on the right bank of the Rhine. Thus was completed the dislocation of that splendid army, which a few months before had entered France with such brilliant prospects, and by which, if properly directed, might have been achieved the deliver 1 X. 160, 161. ance of Europe from the scourge of democratic ambition. CHAP. What oceans of blood required to be shed, how many provinces were laid waste, how many cities destroyed, how many millions of brave men slaughtered, before the vantage-ground could be regained, before the plains of Champagne again beheld a victorious enemy, or a righteous retribution was taken for the sins of the conquering 73. republic! 1 1792. Jom. ii. St Cyr, i. 8, 185, 186. 9. Th. iii. Hard. ii. 61, 44. invasion of The final retreat of the Allies left Dumourier at liberty to carry into execution a project he had long meditated Plan for the -that of invading the Low Countries, and rescuing these Flanders. fine provinces from the Austrian dominion. The advantages of this design were evident to advance the frontiers of the Republic to the Rhine, to draw from the conquered provinces the means of carrying on the war, to stir up the germ of revolution in Flanders, reinforce the armies by the discontented spirits in that populous country, and extinguish the English influence in Holland, were objects worthy of the conqueror of Brunswick. He received unlimited powers from the government; and the losses sustained by the Allies during their invasion, as well as the reinforcements he was constantly receiving, gave him a great superiority of force. The right wing, composed of a large portion of the troops detached from the Argonne forest, consisted of sixteen thousand men; between that and the centre was placed General Harville, with fourteen thousand. Dumourier himself commanded the main body, JC215. consisting of forty thousand men; while the left wing, under Toul. iii. 38, Labourdonnaye, was about thirty thousand strong-in 210, 211. all, a hundred thousand men, all animated by the highest 1793, 59. spirits, and anticipating nothing but triumph and conquest, 121. from their recent success over the Prussian invaders.2 To oppose this immense army, the Austrians had no adequate force at command. Their whole troops in French inFlanders, including the corps which General Clairfait had Flanders. brought from the Duke of Brunswick's army, did not exceed forty thousand men, and were scattered, as was 2 Compare 39. Th. ii. Ann. Reg. Dum. iii. 45. vasion of X. 1792. CHAP. usually the case with them at this period, over too extended a line. The centre, under the command of the Archduke Albert, was stationed in front of the important city of Mons; while the remainder of the army, dispersed over a front of nearly thirty miles, could render little assistance, in case of need, to the main body. This main body, numbering not above nineteen thousand men, was intrenched on a strong position near the village of JEMAPPES. The field of battle had been long before chosen by the Imperialists, and extended through the village of Jemappes, and in front of that of Cuesmes, from the heights of Jemappes on the one hand to those of Berthaimont and the village of Sifly on the other, over a succession of eminences which commanded all the adjacent plain. Fourteen redoubts, strengthened by all the resources of art, and armed by nearly a hundred pieces of artillery, seemed almost to compensate to the Austrians for their great inferiority of number. The French artillery, however, was nearly equal to that of their opponents, and their forces greatly superior, amounting to no less than 217. Dum. forty thousand men ; and though many of these troops Toul. iii. 40, were inexperienced, recent triumphs had in an extraordiReg. 1793. nary degree elevated their courage. In this action, the new system of tactics was tried with signal success—viz. 47. Bert. that of accumulating masses upon one point, and in this 197, 199. manner forcing some weak part of the position, and compelling the whole to be abandoned.1 1 Jom. ii. iii. 165, 169. 54. Ann. 61, 62. Hard. ii. 45, de Moll. x. 46. Battle of Nov. 6. On the 6th November, the battle commenced at daybreak. The French troops, who had been under arms or Jeppes in bivouac for three successive days, received the order to advance with shouts of joy, moved forward with rapidity, and lost few men in traversing the plain which separated them from the enemy. The attack on the French right was commenced by General Beurnonville on the redoubts which crowned the heights in front of the village of Cuesmes. A severe fire of artillery for some hours arrested his efforts. On the other flank the hamlet of Jemappes was at length |